1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a system and a method for producing a patient-specific cardiac electrode, and in particular for production of a cardiac electrode in a biventricular pacing system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Tachycardia and bradycardia can be treated therapeutically with conventional pacing. Biventricular pacing therapy, also called cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is used to artificially produce a synchronization between the right ventricle and the left ventricle in patients in whom such synchronization is not present, due to a cardiac pathology or insufficiency.
A biventricular pacing system requires three electrodes, two of which are typically implanted in the right atrium and in the right ventricle, respectively, at locations at which conventional cardiac pacemaker electrodes are normally implanted. The third electrode is positioned in a side branch of the coronary venous tree. For this purpose, an implantation tool such as a catheter, carrying the electrode, is navigated (guided) through the coronary sinus into a communicating side branch, and the electrode is anchored into place at an appropriate location.
For optimal stimulation of the left ventricle (LV) it is important that the anchoring (implantation) site of the aforementioned third electrode be optimally selected, and it is also important that the third electrode be optimally adapted, with regard to its length and curvature, to the individual anatomy of the patient.
There are various conventional techniques that are known for supporting implantation of the CRT electrodes. A commercially available guide wire from Stereotaxix, is magnetically controllable for facilitating navigation in the coronary venous tree. The possibilities for imaging for identification of a suitable implantation site, and guidance to that site, are limited with such known methods.